1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a corrugated tube for containing and protecting a wiring harness, e.g., in motor vehicles such as automobiles. More particularly, the invention concerns a corrugated tube having a longitudinal slit along its longitudinal direction. A wiring harness is composed of a plurality of electrical wires. In the construction according to the present invention, the slit is first opened and the wiring harness is inserted into the corrugated tube sideways through this slit. Further, once the harness is inserted, the slit is firmly closed in an easy manner.
2. Description of Background Information
In a wiring harness used for automobiles, some portions thereof, where necessary, are wrapped in a corrugated tube and thus protected. Examples of known corrugated tubes for such applications include:
tubes having a slit S along their axial direction (type 1-1), shown in FIG. 1A; PA1 tubes having no slit (type 1-2), shown in FIG. 1B; PA1 tubes similar to those of type 1-1, but further having zones R which are overlapped in the circumferential direction of the tube (type 1-3), shown in FIG. 1C.
In the case of corrugated tube 1-2 without slit, when a connector housing is initially mounted on an end portion of the electrical wires W, the latter cannot be passed through the corrugated tube 1-2. Therefore, the electrical wires must first be placed in the corrugated tube 1-2 and only then can the connector housing be mounted on the end portion of the wires. When the connector housing is subsequently mounted, the end portion of each electrical wire cannot be inserted thereinto by an automated process. Consequently, the automation of the assembly process becomes difficult.
In the case of corrugated tube 1-1 with a slit, a group of electrical wires W is inserted by opening the slit. The connector housing can thus be mounted onto the end portion of the electrical wires beforehand. Accordingly, an automated process can be envisaged for inserting the end portion into the connector housing. However, when the zone protected by the corrugated tube is bent as illustrated in FIG. 2, the slit may be opened. It is therefore necessary to lock the slit, once the electrical wires W have been inserted. To this end, a tape can be wound around the outer circular surface of the tube 1-1. However, this task is cumbersome.
A corrugated tube 1-3 with an overlap-type slit S shown in FIG. 1C, differs from the above, solely in that the overlapping zone on one side of the slit is superposed on a corresponding zone of the other side of the slit. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to use tape in order to lock the slit securely. As mentioned, this task is cumbersome.